now's a co-host thank you hello everyone it is February 20th 2025 this is a regular meeting of the Community Resources Committee of the Town Council uh it is a virtual meeting
pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 and extended by chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 this meeting will be conducted via remote means members of the public who wish to access the meeting May do so via Zoom or by telephone no in-person attendance of
members of the of the public is possible but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means we are on item one so I'm going to
go around see if everyone can um hear us I will'll start with uh Pat d'angeles sorry Pat you sorry to pick on you sorry present uh Kathy Shane
yes uh councelor hanaki present and Jennifer to yes here Grand oh thank you yeah the bags to show for it it's a good
it's a good thing uh there are no public hearings today we finished with U Drive which is a great accomplishment um and I'm looking to the audience there are no
attendees um for general public comments I did add to the uh agenda if people are interested in making comments on the solar bylaw that um actually I don't see it in this
agenda it's must be for the 27th that so this is the opportunity for for public comment and I see no attendees so we can move right into item four which is action items and after how many months
we actually I think are going to get to talk about Chris's report to the CRC um so would like to open the floor to that um I think as background I think for Kathy um we add
that we had quite a discussion early on in our review of this bylaw to understand if we should separate the whole thing into different parts and include submittals and
requirements uh as part of zba and or planning board requirements instead of instead of having it a self-contained bylaw and it was determined and with with Chris's uh research here um I'll let her go through
it but it feels uh pretty much like we want to keep this contained within the solar bylaw itself as many of the items are pretty specific to this kind of construction and development Chris do you want to walk us
through this sure I'm not muted am I no okay no so I wrote a memo to the CRC back in December and I think you should all have access to that memo I think it's in your packets and um it's essentially saying
that I reviewed the um rules and regulations of the zoning board of appeals and the rules and regulations of the planning board with regard to submitt requirements and then um looked at the submittal requirements that we had included in the Solar bylaw and
compared them and came to the conclusion that it was um probably a good idea to leave the submitt requirements in the Solar um bylaw and make reference to the fact that the zoning board of appeals and planning board also have submittal
requirements but they're a little bit less um definitive or or particular um detailed than what we have here in the Solar bylaw so um what I want to do is first of all I'd like to apologize for
an error in my memo to you and it's in the third paragraph and I had made reference to the exact pages in the zba rules and rags and the planning board rules and Rags I had gotten them reversed so that may have caused some
confusion and I apologize for that um so why don't we just uh start in and the effort was you know looking for duplications and redundancies but as I said I think that we should keep the submittal requirements in this solar bylaw so the first um paragraph excuse
me just a minute I'm going to interrupt I think last time we as we started on this we were going to have the uh the actual solar document the bylaw document up and then we could talk about each of the these pertaining to your memo but
with the the basic wording up and failure at sharing my screen I wonder if either Stephanie or um councelor Hani would you like me to share the current version that that would be great if you want to do that do
Mandy do you also want to take notes as we if we um adopt something we put it in yes I'm happy to do that um but I think if we're doing that we need to talk about everything that Pam added
before any com without conversation at CRC too so I think we either need to make a note of that or you know go through them for that too um I'm concerned that it's a version that has ads in it that we haven't
talked about when none of our other counselors have the ability to do that and put it in the packet um P You're muted Kathy had her hand up first oh
okay Kathy thanks sorry um as as everyone here knows I'm a newcomer so the other thing that I would request what I would add to Second what Mandy just said is I find this document almost
important impossible to read um because I'm not sure where the comment has already been addressed what things have been deleted what things have been added or what things are potential ads so maybe at the end of when we go through
with Chris we could have a quick review of this and I am more than willing as a newcome to take on whatever we want to do so that was comment number one second as we go through Chris's comments I
would prefer that we do them in comment boxes so we don't just try to change the language while we are working on it Pam because that's where I mean some of this is is this precise wording as opposed to
Chris has got some delete these add these you know just cross reference because because then the document's already messy so I can tolerate comment boxes but trying to uh add so those are just my two requests um I couldn't
decide whether I should accept all the edits and do a clean version and then I realized there were some things that were alternative wording so maybe we can address that but Chris I didn't mean to cut you off I just meant you know to to get it clean enough so I can read it
thanks yeah thank you it is it is a mess um Pat yeah I have a similar comment I agree with Mandy that we need to go through the whole document because there are lots of additions and deletions that we have not agreed on but I would like
very much just get one thing done which is let's look at the submitt requirements before we go back and try to look at anything else it just feels like let's do that not start at the beginning
um right now yeah okay good so um um I'm looking at counselor haniki if you uh if you would like to add it as a as a comment um I have trouble with the little little
bubble boxes but anyway that's right okay Chris breast okay well we're starting with starting with submitt requirements this is currently called section 17.04 submitt requirements I wanted to
make the comment that the um udrive overlay zoning district has also taken the title of section 17 so we're going to have to uh change or revise the um the section number or article number for
this but we can put that aside for now um in any event I think I'm making the request recommendation that the um first paragraph of submittal requirements where it says in addition
to the requirements listed in the PGA that's the permit granting Authority rules and regulations the following information shall be submitted as part of the application I would like to recommend changing that to say in addition to the submitt requirements listed
below the applicants are encouraged to review the application and submittal requirements in the rules and regulations of the planning board and the zoning board of appeals whichever is applicable because I think that makes it clearer that these are the requirements
that are governing but it's also a good idea to go back and look at the rules and Rigs of the planning board and the zba I don't think there's going to be a conflict and I think that this list is much more comprehensive and the lists that are in the rules and Rags are um
more minimal councelor hanii I'll make that change um but I have a question about it encouraged to review the application and submitt requirements it's my
understanding that the applicable pga's regulations must be followed too so I I guess I question the wording applicants are encouraged to review because that doesn't seem to indicate they have to
submit that too um so are we not requiring them to submit the pga's regulated regulations submittal requirements and only these or do they have to do both
because this language to me is unclear as to whether they have to do both I understand what you're saying and I think that the language that I've suggested could be modified to make it clearer that they need to do both but I think that this list does encompass
everything that's in the rules and regulations of the planning board and the zba so we could say are also required to follow the application submittal requirements or whatever wording you think is appropriate Mandy could you see if you
can enlarge the text as as much as you possibly can give me a second yeah thank you Jennifer well while she's doing that yeah now I'm sure an applicant would know the answer to this I just don't I guess I'm not clear on it when we say
that they should look at the zba or planning board whichever are applicable they should look at both because they wouldn't necessarily know which is applicable by the time they get to this point they would know they would know they would okay for a special permit
with the zoning board of appeals I see they would all right okay thank you so I have another question follow up on that one hold on just second Pat and then Council sorry I was just gonna say can't we change the
applicants are required to review and just get rid of the encouraged review and follow or review and encourage to review and follow comply with yep um so so my question would be following up on Jennifer's in the rules
and regulations I would say of the applicable PGA because we're trying not to reference a specific board y good yep that makes sense yep great
so in addition to the submitt requirements listed below applicants are required to comply with the submitt requirements in the rules and regulations of the applicable PGA great so in this case Kathy we are correcting the wording and we're not
putting I don't mind this kind of word I mean this is very specific as opposed to Alternatives I'm fine with this and particularly focused on this section and it's not redlines it's it's actually we should be accepting this so great so it is Red Line because I'm
tracking all changes but what I can do at the end of this is is create a better version that has accepted the changes made during each of the meetings
um so in this section it would be the changes made during after this meeting me it would be the submitt ones but I can clean up the prior sections too so that there are um so that when we've discussed it in a meeting and made a change that that shows up is
accepted that that's fine with me it was more the commentary that went along and Alternatives that was I found difficult yeah okay Chris back to Chris okay so now we're going to be talking about um item number one and item number one has
to do with the existing conditions plan which shows on a um a plan what exists on the site prior to anything being proposed so I think this is a good list however uh what did I say keep all of
the items on the list and this uh this number one should um it provides a good checklist for the applicant in one place even though some of the items may be redundant with rules and rs um for the first bullet though where it says for
the project site based on a ground survey groundbased survey I'd like to add the words um stamped and signed stamped and signed by a registered land surveyor licensed to practice in the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts okay any any discussion on that good I don't have discussions on that I have discussions on some of the read stuff and and what Pam did just
include y but but Chris don't you mean that so it has to have this and that that includes and then the list well the existing conditions plan should be based on a survey and the survey should not just be based on
aerial photography or our GIS you know system it should be based on something that's actually done on the ground it could be partially based on GIS but the um it has to be ground truthed by a registered L surveyor so does that
answer your question I mean all of these things that are bulleted here are going to be put on to this existing conditions plan but the plan has to be created to begin with so you can put all those things on it Chris would would it feel better to
you for an existing I mean the title of this of this plan or sheet is is existing conditions um if we included that bullet into the title as an an an
existing conditions plan based on a groundbased survey stamped and signed is that too much of a burden for that for that first item the first item is a existing conditions plan I think the existing conditions plan is going to include all of these
bulleted items items yeah that are listed down below think listing it in a simple way such as either existing conditions or existing conditions plan you know one so we won't try to put that bullet up into the number one I
don't think so okay okay okay all right and then it has um obviously property lines any physical features that are found topography um and we did make mention here this is something that Pam added based on a prior discussion that we
should identify areas of greater than 15% slope the reason for that is because we've um made a requirement later on in the Solar bylaw saying that the solar installations should not be um put onto slopes that are greater than 15% so we
have to know where those 15% areas are and then um characteristics and extent of land cover that makes sense either we can outline a bubble that says wooded area and then another area that would
maybe would say pasture and another area that might say you know bare Earth or something like that but you want to know what is kind of there on the ground um and then the next one is e Wetlands vernal pools and flood Plaines and that
would be information that would be um relevant to both the permit granting Authority that we're talking about here but also to the uh Conservation Commission um then we also want to see public roads uh and abing Scenic roads and
byways and farm roads or other roads that are actually existing on the property and then this item G I think we could delete because we've already put it into item C above yeah I would agree uh Mandy yeah
so the question is Pam put it in C without talking to us it was already in G um but is it better in C or is topography different than slopes greater than 15% um is number one and number two with vernal pools um the addition of
that um by Pam um can you are vernal pools already mapped or do you have to map them on your own and if so can you map them at any time of year or is the inclusion of
vernal pools on this requirement basically limiting to how long it takes someone to apply because they have to wait to a certain time of year to map the Vernal pool before they can actually submit their
application Chris um so I think in the answer to the first question you could leave out the red writing that's part of item C and just include what's part of item G the two things are related but um by putting a separate item
in item G it calls attention to it so that would be a reason for having it in G but I can see arguments in both ways because it is related to topography with regard to vernal pools vernal pools are actually a wetland resource area that would be encompassed within the word
Wetlands so if you're mapping Wetlands you would ordinarily map renal pools um although um councelor hanii is right that you can only map FAL pools at certain times of the year there so
um if you're going to submit something in November maybe you'd have to wait till the spring the following spring to actually map the Vernal pool so you could leave vernal pools out because they're encompassed within Wetlands Wetland resources
areas Pat and then and then I have a question yeah just uh out of curiosity uh if someone is submitting an application in November they could have been doing all this mapping and everything months before then is that true so I so I don't think the veral
pool being listed there stops anything um I don't know so I'd like to keep it in but I'm not going to but they're gonna have to put it in eventually because the Conservation Commission is going to wants it yeah oh
well then we probably should add it to the list of what's what they should expect and not surpris them later um I have a question or thought about item c um Chris would you typically have them
submit a uh basically a tw- foot Contour or one foot Contour plan um would it make sense to to highlight those areas that are 15% or greater at that time or make it a
separate sheet um saying go back to that rating plan that topography and now um I highlight and and identify the 15% areas you often see um sort of two
different maps that are presented one would be all the topography including these other things that we're talking about and then a separate map that would show specifically what areas are at what percent so that would be um a way of displaying that information it wouldn't
all have to be on the existing conditions plan but it would need to be submitted to the uh PGA as part of the application process great so so I'm very comfortable taking it out of C then uh and leaving
G you want to just just like erase it how do folks feel about vernal pool if it's if it's one of the categories within Wetlands will it be more I think that should be kept I would
say I'm not going to fall on this sword but if it's duplicative I would rather keep the the larger category than call out the smaller category too but I'm not I'm I'm defer to the Conservation Commission
who wants it in well I'm not sure they want it in I think Pam asked for it to be in the Conservation Commission will make sure it's mapped there's a difference between them asking for it to come in and one of us asking for it to come in
Stephanie um the Conservation Commission is definitely going to have their own process I don't think and I have to concur with um counil heniki that they're not going to look to your these regulations governing vernal pools it
has to go through them if there are vernal pools so um I I think you know they would ensure that they're they're identified they would have to be Stephanie the so the question might be if if this you know you hand them the
checklist here's the checklist and and an existing plan um if we I understand it's a it's a type of wetland in a sense um does it does it not make sense though
to just remind them that not only must they do X they have to do Y and Z and that's that they're going to bump into it again at some other point if they're putting their packages together they're going to do all of this before it even
goes to the conservation and Wetland administrator right right well so oops sorry my um yeah speaker is doing a weird thing in the background um I would I would say that you know vernal pools and flood lanes are part of the our
Wetlands so it's sort of to me in some ways a bit redundant to have Wetlands Burnal pools and flood planes they are wetlands so um I think if you're going to keep wetlands in there it's maybe sufficient to just say that um I I don't
understand that you know adding those two separate specific um regulatory jurisdictional areas calling them out versus bordering vegetated Wetland you know I I think you should just say Wetlands if you're going to keep Wetlands then I
would say wetlands and I don't think you need to call those out that makes some sense and it's not a sword I want to die on either so if if it is all inclusive and the conservation committee commission is where the department is and you you know
everyone involved is then let's keep it simple so sorry to agree with you Mandy so we'll strike those two those two add-ons okay back to Chris unless there are other comments on
the on a through a through G no I didn't um put any more in my memo but we haven't really discussed this list so I think it's worth going through all the right yeah and I'm sorry I have some
questions the red Pam you added after the last time we discussed the medal requirements but this parentheses that has cross outs that are not track changes Pam did you cross all of those out too or
no uh well we might have crossed those out because they were getting bumped up to item number one well this is number I mean it's not from 26 so I just don't understand where where that came from but maybe
that yeah um okay so all of these should be crossed out the parenthetical well wait a minute wait a minute um this it's been since November um item number 26 if we quickly
look at what number 26 is uh that was moved to number two locations of natural cultural resources active Farmland you moved that to number two after our after we last discussed it yeah
but it doesn't look like we adopted them and put them in as bullets for number two it just that we moved it there well no your red says moved so I'm wondering whether you moved it there I don't know yes Stephanie said move it up to
three so I wonder if we've got duplicates with that here give me it three is something different we're talking about existing conditions well let's when we get down to those we let's go through them one by
one and see if they are in fact um existing conditions requirements Pat this is problematic if anybody on the committee moves something after a meeting and I think that's a lesson for all of us yes and if it was me it was
based on the discussion that we'd had and the notes that were taken but not like typed in as we did it I think that's my only recollection so let's keep going we have we we finished G now we're looking at a budding land uses locations of
structures and inventory historic properties um zoning districts yeah I think aing line are important because the zba may want to know how close are these panels going to be to that residential use or how close
is it going to be to that gas station or whatever the abing land use happens to be it might have an influence on whether the zba says oh I think there should be some more uh screening in this location or we should you know move the setback
back 10 feet or something like that so I think AB budding land uses are important um and then we have location of structur inventory historical buildings I some of this is starting to uh on property and within 300 feet of
the site as available from the ammer town of ammer GIS viewer so I think all of that is important and it's information that usually does get captured on an existing conditions plan I just have a quick question Chris I I
think it's a good it should be there does a historical where is it now I'm getting lost um historic building inventory location of structures where would we put in about an indigenous burial ground I don't
think we have any but something like indigenous burial ground this just for my own information not I don't have something to add we usually don't map those because they're considered to be sacred and we don't want members of the public or
anybody else to go ransacking them so they're usually kept kind of quiet okay um so what what happen if this if they were in a plan you know somebody doesn't know it's there and that's part of their
plan to yeah I think that the that this information needs to be submitted to the state unfortunately I'm not the most cognizant of exactly what that process is I think if Nate were here he would know but um it does get to the state at
the state can look at it and say oh we know about something that's going on there you better be careful I'm not um clear on exactly what that process is okay thank you and on might email Nate I'm just really curious about it um but thank you for that
clarification okay all right zoning districts we don't necessarily have to have zoning districts on the plan because it would be included in the application however if there is more than one zoning District on a plan it's
usually helpful excuse me if there's more than one zoning District on a property it's usually helpful to have them shown on the existing conditions map because then you know where does one zoning district end and the other one
begin so I would leave zoning districts in here um but you could argue not to have them in there and you could and DBA or planning board PGA could ask to have those mapped separately I think it's a good idea to leave them in here
though Mandy so I thought we nixed zoning districts in here because both PGA requirements included a requirement to show the zoning districts and so it was completely redundant here I think
that they always require that you show the zoning District on uh the application form but it's not clear that they always require the zoning districts to be shown on a map and sometimes it does become a problem if they're not shown on the map
so EV asking for the zoning District of just the parcel sometimes itel well if there you just need to show it for the parcel because that's where the zoning applies for that parcel how
however if that parcel is divided into RG and RN there may be different requirements with regard to lot coverage or setbacks or different things that apply to those separate zoning districts and so showing where one ends and one
begins would be helpful I woulde I would agree with that okay um then this is something that we moved from another location active farmland and Prime Farmland soils and farmland soils of Statewide importance I think we moved that from a something
that was further down the line it was in 26 that I think Pam wanted to move up here but the last time we talked we left in 26 oh we haven't yeah we haven't eliminated 26 yeah right okay so do you want to make a
decision about that now I mean we have to make a decision about 26 which had a lot of um it had a lot of duplicates right many of the things I think many of them got
moved up and the other ones didn't after our discussion it's been so long since we discussed right [Music] um so I see on on the the old 26 was the wetlands and vernal pools which which we
just and fles the flood planes right right the Wellhead areas so so these were in a in a sense it was looking at all of these different requirements and they made much more sense to be included in that in that
first pass of existing conditions so I'd love to keep going on those but let's let's um let's finish up above that and everyone um I put my hand up but I don't know whether you see all right yeah Kathy I think keep going is right and
then once we get through this whole section we can look at if something should move someplace else I wouldn't worry about where it should be right now if the lists are questions on what 26 is particularly for me just going through
the item should be somewhere we we identify it and then we could look at later whether the organization doesn't make sense so just going through each item right now makes sense to me great okay we're on active farmland and Prime
Farmland soils and farmland soils of Statewide importance so I think it's a good idea to map those things because later on we talk about protecting Farmland soils so we don't have a def definition for active Farmland but we have Prime
farmland and soils and farmlands of Statewide importantance it's really hard for a land owner to necessarily know if an AB budding area is active or not especially who knows right and what's
considered active um can you I'm I'm gonna look for Stephanie or I'm gonna look at for Stephanie or even Dave to react to that I would know what an active Farmland is I grew up on a farm I would
stick to the definitions Prime Farmland doesn't include soil in our definitions I would stick to how we've defined them so Prime farmland and soils of State I don't know what I think it's just soils of Statewide importance up in the definition an active Farmland I
understand is Farmland that's been farmed in the last two years but I would look to Dave or Stephanie to confirm that I can say that under the wetlands regulations um for agricultural definition it would be land that's been
farmed within the last five years yeah five years okay so doesn't that seem that it should be there and get added to definition I I guess my question is how does a landowner know if the next store
landowner has farmed it in the last five years if they've bought it a year ago this doesn't apply to neighboring land this only applies to the property in question okay I I would just chime in I I agree I
I think putting in a definition I think Pat and others here an Act definition of active Farmland makes a lot of sense because it's not crystal clear you might have a you might have a um a Hayfield
you know to a farmer that's an active uh that's in active agriculture but to the to the average person the late person they might look at that and they go they're not doing anything with that but in fact they're they're bailing hay for for horses or whatever the other thing is it's not this is for um mapping
purposes it's not saying oh you can't do something here it's just that we want to know these things right and the others are clear definitions based on the kind of soils that are there and that's all readily available information and if not
they can go out and do soil testing for Prime and uh Statewide importance okay Wellhead protection areas and surface water supply protection areas I think surface water supply protection areas has a clear
definition and I don't know about Wellhead protection but I think it does have a clear definition and maybe again Dave or Stephanie could Enlighten us about that Stephanie I um it's been a while but I believe for
Wellhead protection areas um I you know there's a certain radius of what that is and I don't off the top of my head recall what that is and does that only apply to public Wells or does it apply to private Wells as
well I don't know that seems I I don't recall I could there's a section there's a section that the drinking water protection group was recommending and I think we may get to
that uh a little bit below that's right I remember that but I but I'd love to make a note of that because I think um it feels that it should be public and private because many of the people in that part of in the East part of town which is more likely to be developed
because it is currently less developed um would be the ones affected so with Wells there's Zone one and zone two I don't off the top of my head know the the distances and then for surface water
there's Zone A and B so we can we can get those or maybe they have been referenced later on in this document I will say I've heard from a number of people concerned about and that by the
way those are just for public water supplies that I reference Zone One and Two and A and B and I have heard from a number of residents concerns about protection of private Wells and the need for this document to speak to those as
well no this again maybe uh we need to check out and get the definitions Etc clarify them but also add them to definitions I don't believe they're there it' be very easy to get those we could get those Beth Wilson and and the
DPW uh engineering folks great then we have permanently protected open space and I think that's clear what that is it's APR land conservation land state-owned land and probably a number
of other things but I think we can be clear about what it is Heritage and endangered species program um and the biomap 3 and critical natural landscape and core habitat those all have Maps associated with them so you
can check to see where those are and then have the um survey or map those on the plan yep and soil types I have a question about that one I'm trying to look at the definitions
um should we just have we talked about it looks like maybe we don't have them in definitions anymore um I don't want to page up for you all so I'm looking at an old version for me thank
you but um I know we did something with the biomap 3 and and all of that somewhere else in this bylaw on a previous version um if if that's in definitions or
something should we just use that definition instead of these instead of setting everything out um you know is
it you know instead of redefining stuff but um so we the soils and farmlands of Statewide importance are is is defined as land designated as such by the USDA natural resources conservation Services web soil survey
map I guess the question is is the biomap 3 and critical natural landscape and core habitat the same web surve soil map no it's a different map okay and it is a particular map and you can look at
it and then extract that information and put it on a survey okay and I did just scroll to the definitions and I don't see any of those defined right we have we have just soils
and farmlands of Statewide importance per USDA okay yeah and and Prime Farmland per USDA and and nrcs yeah so do we I feel awkward do we
have to reference or sort of cross reference any um anything that's already under the jurisdiction of you know a um a national division what do you
mean it seems to me that it doesn't hurt to have it there um I don't know I mean Chris what do you think to have what to have the the biom maps I I think Pam was referring
to the biomap information I'm not sure yeah like where who what what organization do we do we have to direct people to those organizations that maintain the the biomap 3s just as we have identified qu to find soil types
Stephanie uh those are under the natural heritage and endangered species program so that is where you would find those maps and they're updated so I think similarly you would want to have language that says the most
recent most recent natural Heritage uh no the most recent um biomap 3 gotcha thank you so we use it down on what was page
11 in at least in a prior version in section 1706 I'm going to just so people can see how we referred to it down there um this is how we referred to it there so we described it as
on Massachusetts GIS biomap 3 or priority under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act yeah not the National Heritage one David yeah I would um I don't mean to
defer this to later but I would love to maybe sit down and get a little guidance from Aaron jock on this I I find it very um uh Mandy I'm getting confused now yeah so I
find it very um it's odd that we say natural heritage and endangered species program parentheses NE ESP estimated in priority to habitats and then below it we say soil types as found on the us at the
very least I think we should say estimated in priority habitats biomap 3 and critical natural landscapes and core habitat as mapped by the Massachusetts natural heritage and endangered species program a lot of people when they they
get very confused about natural heritage thinking it's a federal program it's a state program and so they even switch up natural and National so very fre by the Massachusetts by the Massachusetts
natural heritage and endangered species program and then I I get your point Mandy we refer to it differently down below we then reference um Misa so I would encourage maybe Steph to talk
to Steph and Chris to talk to Arin about consistency there um she she works in that world did Stephanie some years ago but um Stephanie's been out of that that arena for a little while but if you could maybe consult with Arin on the
proper reference there I that would be great so we'll just we'll let's table this now we'll come we'll look for some feedback next time that'd be great actually that's uh that's next week it' be great if if she wants to just quickly respond to that that would be very
helpful I can get that response and send it via email um okay okay perfect do we have any trouble the soil types is that okay so I
had a question about the soil types because we did that up top with the where was it the um Prime farmland and soils and farmland of Statewide importance that's different no we're talking this is this is soil types like
Shay whatever nice or Enfield or they have all kinds of crazy names but um they're mapped by the USDA and they don't necessarily have to do with farming they have to well I guess they were originally mapped for
farming purposes but they have to do with building purposes for instance last night we had um someone come into the not last night was it yes it was last night come into the planning board and talk about soil types on a property in ammer where they were going to build a
building they weren't going to um Farm it but they still referred to the soil types that were there on the property so it's um it's something that is good to know when you're building something but it doesn't necessarily have to do with
farming it's critical it's critical to know actually yeah because of erosion factors different soils erode at different rates under different conditions right or comp or compact better than
others for instance um I deleted the parenthesis because it was already in parenthesis you we could actually just actually let me redo that um we've already defined them up in definitions as USDA
yep great yep and can you can for my advocation can you take the yellow and red off so they I I will once once we got this done okay is it as found or as mapped on as mapped on or as
identified yeah identified that's good I can't remember what the yellow was four in the first place anymore no that's okay I'm just as long as I know it's this is language people want as opposed to our questioning I I have to deal with the
yellow later it's not you can I'm just yeah it's things to go back and look at that's what it was intended to be oh okay well there you go locations of local or natural wait a minute um
National register historic districts so that's important if you're going to be removing something um I don't know if it's terribly important for insulation of solar projects
um you I think you can leave it in or not somehow if there's going to be a demolition of something people will find out about it they have to get a permit to demolish so you could leave it in or take it out it's up to you where
are where are we I've got distracted I think I'm sorry locations of local or NA national register has okay this this may apply as much to an adjoining property as it does to the the property under consideration which which
we've been told that we're you know we sort of not well we went back to the the historic structures within 300 feet I think of the property so um I I don't mind keeping this in here uh it clearly
would show up if there was some pretty significant historic structures nearby but it doesn't I agree we probably wouldn't bump into that very often but better to keep it
perhaps Kathy I guess I disagree because up above you have a budding budding buildings um yeah you know and and if you actually think of what we have in Amis for local National History we don't have large swaps of land that someone
could put a large solar complex on it in the middle of these areas you know the the nearest one we have and we don't really have a historic district in north amest um is there is some open land up there but it's not it's not a historic
district so I'm not sure what it adds since you have AB budding properties up above I'm fine with that anybody else I'm comfortable with removing it yeah me too okay so now we're going to move
into side plans for proposals is that right so I think we're getting rid of this parenthetical and all of this right because let's just double check it looks like we've covered just about everything [Music]
yep yes yay we're on number two okay number two is site plans which are showing things that are proposed to happen to the property can I just ask whether the well head one is up in the top list I'm
I believe it is right here fine I don't I'm not quick enough to cross check thanks no and it's got a comment associated with it too okay so site plans showing proposed changes to the property including
grading and proposed berms I had a question for um councelor Rooney I wasn't sure what she meant by proposed BMS I think grading would show burms or gullies or
any change in the shape of the land so I wondered what it should it should and I think that was just based on my visits to other solar sites that there are often some pretty distinctive BMS mostly
caused by the soil that they excavate from one area and they dump somewhere else and um when I think of if I'm in a butter having a you know a 4 foot high burm uh along say along a property line
means that there's that much more screening from the prop the joining property so sometimes it's very helpful um to note that but I but I agree that the word grading should Encompass it so I'm okay taking it off okay quick
question uh Chris and in my notes from going through your um your list of things you wanted to add some language oh I did want to add a language about um I have it here you um yeah I have it in
front of me so great after um let's see so incorporated into site plans showing proposed changes should be language that the site plan would be based on a groundbased survey
as described in item number one above in other words you have to have a base plan to which you are adding these things so um site plans comma B based on a groundbased survey as
described in number one above comma and you also had a second then the second thing was um the proposed
shall the proposed s PL shall be stamped and signed by a registered by a professional engineer licensed to practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts where are we putting that um probably after the word above
so yes I think that's that's okay for now as a placeholder yeah thank you and then the other thing is that the site plans shall contain plans of the LG GPI showing the proposed layout of the system including
distance between the system and all property lines and maybe that could be a bullet I think that should be a bullet yeah it could be the very first bullet first bullet um so the first bullet would be plans of the
lgpi showing the proposed layout of the system including the distance between the system and all property Chris would it make sense to include the word best here as well because we've done that before lgpi and best yeah it has to yeah sure
[Music] y because that's often the more critical element do we have that later on Mandy that's what I was wondering I I have I'm not going to scroll here I'm going to scroll on a prior version I thought we had a lot of the lgpi somewhere
later that talked about like we number three was was drawings of the lgpi I think when we get to three it's it's uh her note was maybe deleted because it's covered in number two right
I think that's right yeah so your site plan should really show the Loc of these things yeah okay um and so that it would be including best yeah yeah but okay I'm
sorry so we have grading and then information about proposed top soil or other soil removal um I think it should have proposed top soil or other soil removal or addition and I think we might cover that
later on also but I would put or addition after the word removal yep okay vegetation clearing um a planting plan and these don't necessarily have to be all on the same plan they can be on
separate plans that are labeled as to what they're going to be showing um exterior lighting including locations type wattage and Luminosity screening vegetation or excuse me sorry Interruption um exterior
lighting so type wattage and Luminosity um doesn't feel like something you you well let's let's when the planning board looks at something like they looked last night at at the um Amity Street development they had a
lighting plan and a um I forget what they call the plan but it's got the lumens on the ground and I don't I don't think that that would be something that would be required for the few lights at a solar you
know Way Station it would do we do we need the luminosity and the Watts and so forth unless it's you know 20 foot high beacons maybe we do want to know that that's what they're proposing
well we do usually get the wattage okay Lumosity is probably not that important unless um we were worried about it shining over into someone else's property but the um asked for that if they thought it was
important okay good okay good so we could take that word out Luminosity if you want to no what does what does luminosity mean I think it means intensity of the light
measured in foot candles I I think I'd like to keep it there is just what Chris said it doesn't hurt to have it there because it depending on where the lighting is it may really affect the butters um I mean we've had those
changes uh in other plans that the planning board has passed and stuff like that that became an issue for different neighborhoods and and um if if this is a farm there could be neighboring homes if it's a forest there could be neighboring homes it just
depends so it doesn't I don't think it hurts to have it there doesn't make an extra super uh important requirement and the PGA could also Grant a waiver from that requirement if they decided that it wasn't important in a
particular case good okay Greening V vation or structures I think that means fences to screen things or Hedges um location of question just excuse me
question on that um screening vegetation really should be part of a planting plan the planting plan should include the screening I guess is the the vegetative screening uh it I'm fine having it in two two different bullets
um you could say planting plan as it is above including uh screening or including vegetative screening yeah but what about the screening structures that could be separate if there are any if there are any
structures that to me is more like a a fence or a screening structures yep that works okay um why did we take fencing out is that because we had a elsewhere I
think Chris but don't we want to show it on a site plan yes I think we do but I think there's a whole isn't there a whole section on fencing I think there is but I think it should be that whole section Des Des
cries what type of fencing you can have but I think you should actually show it on the plan because it's part of the you know physical things that you're G to be putting there yes you're right it's under Section 1705 yeah
okay service vehicle parking and access roads that's fine storm water management system features and the question is is that the same as number 27 um however I think it's you can describe the storm waterer management
plan but then you actually need to show where these things are on the ground you need to show the storm water catchment basins and you need to show the swales and you know all the uh infrastructure that is necessary to support the storm water management so I think it's useful
to have it on the site plan yeah I would say it's not the same as 27 which is just the plan um but is it system or features I I'm not sure why we went with features over
systems I don't remember okay you could say infrastructure okay locations of L so this is where I was thinking we duplicated the bullet point above that's
right we did and we do we cover it all lgpi inverters polls and bests so what is polls you added that Pam what were you referring to um we have we have had several we had a conversation about um
typically when uh the power company has had to come in and put extra polls and they're often in the public right of way like we did that at the uh at the landfill and we've done it a couple other places where they connect to um a
new B so that's the interconnection thing we got rid of down here I don't think you should get rid of the interconnection thing but that that's um you can get rid of it here but not later on because it's usually in the town right of way so right I think you
know leaving it out of here is fine but there are polls usually on the site or off the site that allow this to be connected to the grid so if you're if you're going to install poles on the site it should be shown on the site PL
so I think it's okay to leave it here great so I think the next one's why we had fencing deleted above I see location well security measures and fencing okay so that's why we deleted it all right got
it um here's can can we oops excuse me can we just go right ahead right now and delete that word fencing I know you put a line through it but yeah I guess it's the same thing isn't it yeah I just want to see it's in track changes so if I showed you the simplified version you
wouldn't see that word got it that's right okay number and location of trees I think we need to talk about this you don't really care what size the trees are in areas that you're not going to clear so you need to make it um clear to the applicant that you only want the Lo
the locations and sizes of trees that you are going to clear um and then on the other hand what size should we talk about and for the normal project um we usually like people to show anything
that's over six inches or over eight inches and that makes sense for a site that's like the Barry Roberts site at Amity Street and University Drive but for an area where you're going to clear 40 acres of
um of trees does it make sense to map locations of all of the trees that are over 12 in I think that's excessive I think you should show areas of clearing rather than um specific trees that are
being cleared now that's my opinion but others may have a different opinion but it just seems very over overdone to map you know all the trees that are over 12 in or 8 in or whatever in a huge area
that's 40 acres or 10 acres or whatever do others agree with that uh I'm I see Kathy you have your hand up I guess I think it could be rewarded because it doesn't actually said per the proposed
for clearing isn't quite uh so it's a proposed number of trees proposed for clearing and proposed for clearing I'm just thinking of the solar array that's up behind us North amris uh there were Big Trees little
trees middle-sized trees and no trees in an area so something that gets at you know how many are we talking about maybe but I I'm not sure whether you going out and measuring them would be would have been very difficult
in in the area that I saw cleared so I see Pat's hand is up yeah I'm calling on her next Pat and then Mandy yeah I'm I'm actually comfortable with um number and locations of trees and areas proposed for
clearing uh but I a clarification uh I have this area a wooded area and I'm going to clear 10 acres but I'm also clearing for Access roads and things like that so would that be included in the in the U definition
here of clearing or should it say clearing and access or whatever I don't know any clearing would be included whether it's for Access or got thank yeah and I'm I'm going to respond to the
locations part of it um I mean if you get a Forester to come in they can give you an estimate of the either the board feed or the number of of you know stumps that they're going to they'll do a stump count and they'll tell you roughly how many trees they're going to take out I
don't don't think it would be feasible to ask somebody to have a surveyor you know GPS locate 500 trees um but we do want to we do want to know um like on an aerial
plan if the area is forested that is going to be the field the solar field um sort of basically what the what the impact is Mandy Joe I mean counselor hanii a couple of questions um we had deleted
this the last time we talked about it because we thought vegetation clearing above covered it um as identifying what was getting cleared um so I'm not sure why it was added back in when the committee thought to delete it um number
two if the zba says 8 Ines I don't know what the zba wording is and I don't know what the planning board wording is but does this override that or are they still going to have to count the number of trees above 8 inches because it's in
the rules and rs and if that's the case which I actually disagree with that they shouldn't have to um do we should we put something in here that overrides the rules and regulations and can you do that in a specific instance um and third
um Counting trees when you word it like this um is never going to be accurate because or it will be excessively expensive to do so and that will not fly at the state level given everything I've read about
State solar bylaws where they say any excessive costs for anything um is against 40 a Section 3 um and so I I would delete this completely
but I do have a concern about the zba submitt requirements and how that affects vegetation clearing and Counting and what we do about that yeah uh Chris um so I think we should have a statement in here perhaps towards the
beginning where we refer to the zba um and planning board requirements that says that the submittal requirements contained in this um article override the Cal requirements contained in the CBA and planning board
uh rules and regulations or supplant or whatever the word would be Chris this would be an instance of if there was such a requirement we'd have to put something in that we're over superseding it in some way we're saying
that um the zba requirements say that you have to map all of the trees that are 8 in and above um and so we don't want to have to require that for solar installations because they're so huge that it would be unduly burdensome for
the applicant to have to do that so um we wanted to put something in here that says that um this list of submittal requirements if there's a conflict with the submitt requirements for either the zba or the planning board the
PGA that this list um overrides those other lists for purposes of solar installations yeah thank you uh Stephanie um I just recall that this was one of the items that staff felt was
really burdensome and also hard to um for for staff to verify as well so I think when you're requiring an applicant to submit these things there has to be some
ability for staff to review and verify what's being stated on the plan and so they thought this was something that was burdensome and um potentially not you know an area is one thing but when you start talking
about the number of trees and the size of trees um for large areas that are likely for this type of vment is too much yeah and I think we we have it here just so that we can talk about it because we didn't really get through that Chris and then
Kathy I think I've said what I had to say oh okay Kathy so Mandy suggested that vegetation clearing includes trees if we want to make sure the word tree appeared under vegetation clearing could be comma including trees and the word
tree would then appear [Music] and the site plan will show that yeah Jennifer I I didn't mean to raise my hand but I agree with Kathy I would add I I think that's a great way to address
it because I think it is I and I agree with Mandy that the state would probably find it overly burdensome and costly death to count every tree so I think why it's here and why why it came back in is that the solar
byw working group had originally um to locate location approximate height and percent tree cover on the site at the time of the filing with trees of a diameter breast height of 18 for Evergreen and 12 in for deciduous trees
to be identified and tallied to to determin tree loss so they were really targeting the large the the large um trees and that's I think what we're what where that aspect
of it is um falling off here sounds like if we if we if if no one uh objects to including trees up in the vegetative clearing um that probably covers
it Chris oh I was just going to say what if you did um as was suggested say what the location and size of trees over a certain size was what would you do about it would you leave certain trees over a
certain size in place um even though there's a solar array going uh around it so I think we have to connect it with what would be the logical action that would be taken if we had this information and I think there isn't a logical action and and just talk about
was next to our solar array that was walnuts which each time they fell would have broken the solar panels it was a big tree right okay let's keep going here we have um where are we so
far back in location of interconnection including poles and wires is that included in the first line that we have above there um we didn't we have electrical poles you said the interconnection would be sep um on
public and so that maybe it wasn't part of that's correct location of inter interconnections yes that would be offsite and number three we've already deleted because we included that up above
um number four seems to be important I see this in every solar bu that I that I look at one in three one or three line electrical diagram detailing where these things are located and the beess and Associated components so that seems to
be um useful necessary information so the red is a duplicate of what we just have up above right so we could take that out yep and then down below let's see technical
specifications is that a separate thing or does that relate to all of this number five I'm sorry what was your question Chris um it it's that starts off with technical specifications but is that
really necessary here what we want is for them to show the photo voltaic panels the hunting system the inverters bees name plate capacity Real reflectivity Performance history
um we certainly want technical specifications but we don't want it on the site plan we want it somewhere else they usually give it to us in a packet you know it's a big document so it's not on the site plan this is a new number site plan was number
two okay so we all right I get it I'm getting confused technical spec specifications about these items so that we should have a capital T um starting the word Technical and then we should have a word that connects
technical specifications with the other things that are listed after that version seven had a different wording completely um I don't know so I don't know what happened here um let me put the the
wording from version s I'm just going to add it below I'm looking at the same time at numbers the reference to number 14 and 15 14 is a utility connection plan and an acknowledgement of application from
the electric utility 15 is a list identifying all offside electrical system improvements necessary to the electrical grid to accommodate the power from the proposed installation and identification of What entity is paying for such improvements
also the identification of parties responsible for the installation uh inspection and maintenance of the generation tie line if I.E electrical connection to the grid I think they're duplicative that's why that's why asking
is should they be part of five well but four already requires the electrical diagram and two already requires the interconnection but we can talk about that when we get to 14 and 15 y y right now it's the wording of
five Mandy what did you just put in there that's that's um yeah this was the wording we had in a prior version and I I'm not sure why we changed it to this other version the prior wording seems a little clearer
or more logical and oh it says the same thing I think the important thing for um any of these systems is is that addition of the proposed the performance
history which I which the one you just inserted does not include okay that may you know that may be particularly important for beess I'm not I'm not sure
it's as important for the photo do panels themselves so you might want to think of where performance history is applicable and when I have questions of how we how and where best gets inserted
but that's one of the issues on storage systems and their past performance and safety y right but um if you ask how the panels themselves perform it seems to be an odd thing here so maybe these two
need to be separated best in this case the photov voltaic from best if you want performance history it's just when I saw it I was wondering what performance history means related to the panels the
inverters Chris so just to let Kathy know I think um what we decided or I think we decided that we would have two separate sections one for the solar arrays in general and another section that is specific to beess and the reason
for that is that there is uh always now a be that is associated with the solar array because it's required by the state to have that and yet and so that beess
would um would accommodate the electricity that's generated by the solar installation and then there are these bees installations that are separate they're not connected to a specific um
solar panel installation and those are much bigger and more you know probably have more problems so we decided to put that in a separate section just to let Kathy know so so these beess that we're
talking about here are going to be the ones that are a component of a solar array and not a standalone I believe I believe that's that makes it clear and the way Mandy just worded the performance history addresses what I was
saying that we particularly want if there's best performance history of best rather than of each of the panels the mounting system the inverters yeah yeah if and I'm I'm going to I'm going to put
a little alert out that it's just about 5:30 and we don't have a whole lot we have um a couple of meeting minutes and we want to look at the calendar for 2025 and also talk about planning board
and zba selection uh criteria and just the process so um I'm looking for a reasonable cut off point on this and this has been very productive because we're finally getting through it um thoughts
Chris um gosh we have kind of a ways to go yeah looking at Chris's memo I think we can get through at least 10 yeah let's try good
okay all right so nine we decided we're on six right six sorry um six we decided to delete because it's already included up above
isn't it yeah yeah they we require proposed wattage Y and seven um we already included that up above yep and eight um we don't necessarily know who the installer is going to be at this
time when they submit their application because they um unless they work with a particular installer they may have to put this out to bid to you know have a number of installers submit um a proposal so we don't know who the
installer is necessarily so I think that that's not a useful thing to ask for um the nine we said we would delete that because it's already a requirement of um the application of the uh zoning board
of appeals the PGA for everything you have to submit that information and then um number 10 the same thing it's already part of the application so you don't really need that as a specific submit um I'm gonna take a quick qu
quick question from Kathy you have your hand up no sorry I don't it went down it didn't expire so do you want to stop there I'd like to go one more no I I like this Chris because I'm seeing most of the others say keep keep keep keep this is
this is good yeah let's go number 11 11 documentation of actual or prospective access and control of the project site the project site sufficient to allow for construction and
operation of the proposed um installation now access and roads are one thing but the legal access that um an applicant may have to the site is very important the zba or the PGA will
want to know that the applicant actually has the ability to go on the site and do what he's proposing to do so that's what this refers to it's not I'm referring to an a road either okay it's referring to do you have the ability to go on the
site and do what you're proposing so so it's literally about uh the site plans it doesn't like fire access would be elsewhere because or that would be part of the plan this is really literally a
legal access that the can we add the word legal oh I'm comfortable I bet you they know I think since it goes within control of project site yes it's it
makes sense y do we do we need the word legal like legal control of the project site or it's okay 11 what's the next one plan a plan for the operation and
maintenance of the uh installation including battery storage and annual training for emergency responders um that I think is very important it's something that the PGA would ask for and someone had brought up the um legality of requiring annual training for
emergency responders I asked Chris back baskam about this and he said oh yes it's definitely needed and you know um I think that the in proponents or applicants are willing to do this
because they are happy to have emergency responders help them to deal with problems so I don't think they are going to be withholding um annual training and I guess potentially have a lawsuit to
say well you shouldn't require that because it's not legal but I think it's kind of part of whole package okay Chris I mean councelor haniki so the town cannot require a property owner to pay for
training the responders I'm not disputing that our emergency responders will need training but it is part of the taxes everyone pays it can't be required separately the AG in everything it's
written about solar bylaws that have had paying for annual training has flat out said it's illegal to require that the owner to pay for it and I guess my question with this annual
training plan is why are we having each owner of lgpi create a plan for training our emergency responders shouldn't our emergency responders create own plan they all have different types of and the
training is related to the specific type of equipment that's proposed and installed so it's not the same for everyone it's not like a hookie cutter thing where fire department is going to get a training that is applicable to every single installation so my understanding is that the applicants are
usually amenable to uh somehow providing training for emergency responders for their particular type of in station usually they I would I would I would add I would add for instance in a in a new building um you have a complicated
ventilation HVAC system and the the the contractor actually trains the people that are going to be managing it but it's not a requirement of building the building to include that plan that can
change every year I mean this is a plan for annual training number two you know I I will fight this one but it also doesn't belong in number 12 if you're going to put it in it needs to be its separate thing because it has nothing to do with operation and maintenance of lgpi or best it's different and to
conflate it with the plan for operation and maintenance of lgpi to me is wrong but do we when we build the five-story buildings has has zba required a plan for training emergency responders on how to respond to a fire in a five-story
building no so let's fire department's required you know they have to plan their own annual training how do I if I if I I know they need Emergen they they need training maybe it needs to be annually maybe it doesn't but how am I to create
the plan for when the fire department does it how do you even submit a plan I I guess I don't understand how you could even comply with this when it's a municipal Department department and you can't as an owner say you're going to
follow my plan for training and put it as part of the the special permit allowance you know okay this is a good discussion it typic again if if you
build something you you must provide the operation the omm plan you provide the document um part of that is sometimes walking the the the technicians through what what buttons they're going to have to push or what what is an issue with
that particular product so let's table this let's make a note of your concern and I think we draw a line here so that we can get the rest of the agenda done um good discussion and maybe we'll have
a little bit more information next time Chris I was just going to say that um I think that we could look into this maybe I could get more information from Chris baskam and find out um how this works actually and this particular um
submittal requirement doesn't say that you have to pay for it right it just you have a plan so maybe it says something like the applicant will work with the fire department to create a plan to come up with an emergency response or something like that so um but it's a
it's a Chris if you ask it could also be you know if we had it be and safety provision or something like that CU I know there was a lot of discussion Again by the installation up by us on keys to the gates and where they could come and for particular Provisions being able to
get fire trucks onto the property and size of the gates so that requires some collaboration there there there was it was it was a really important feature they had to be wide enough and there had to be a way to get there um and the
gates were otherwise locked for some of these y thank you and thanks Chris thank you Stephanie I don't see your face right here but I appreciate that so we will we make a note that we'll start with number
12 next time or number 11 whatever thank you Dave and D of course I always say thanks to Dave but he's gonna stick around longer probably unless he wants to just turn over the the co-hosting
and and get out of his cave okay I must say I'm really glad that we finally got to this so thank you very much yeah thank you meeting thank you we've been tangling you along forever thank you and both of you very
much Stephanie and Chris my pleasure I just wanted to note Pam that I won't be here for the next meeting but um I will get that response from Ain and I will get it to Dave and Chris so you have it wonderful the other as you're as you're leaving here the other item that we had
put in the packet was um a suggestion from Pat d'angelus on another section which is hazardous materials and so we obviously need to discuss that next time because we did not get to it today well there's so much yeah it would
be nice yeah there's so much to still discuss yeah good night so thank thank you all appreciate it very much uh I have I see a hand in the audience and we did say that we might have the opportunity to allow people to
speak from um on this topic anybody feel uncomfortable doing that pat pat you're saying something but you're muted I'm actually not muted I
don't think oh but um let's just be yeah it's fine but let's keep it tight because we you know yeah absolutely we have lots whoever it um Liz we're gonna let you in you've got uh three two minute two minutes because
we really need to move on to something else on the topic of solar bylaw thank you can you hear me now yes okay all right so I'm sorry I'm in a different time zone here um my name is Nick Shaw I'm in I'm I've taught environmental science at the uh High
School here in town for 27 years I've been reading over the bylaw obviously this is of interest to me and I want to say thank you all for the immense amount of work you've done I know that these things are not easy um I do have some concerns about the no cutting clause in the critical forest and um or Forest uh
language that appears in the bylaw I think it's about the middle of the law uh the uh the potential bylaw and the reason that I have those feelings is that we've done a lot of work in this area at the high school also with professional ecologists and using figures that are widely available in the discipline we
know that if we completely covered the town with trees given our present day carbon emissions we would only be able to absorb about 11% of those emissions so we're not in the trees are really not going to be the thing that saves us here the issue is that we have an awful lot
of carbon dioxide going in the environment and we need to address that um and I know that some feel that if we lose the trees we lose sequestration but you know Lumber is a great place to put uh carbon lasts a long time and as far as absorption is concerned we would lose
the photosynthesis of those whatever 40 acres or so but the amount of photosynthesis that would would then you know result in absorbing carbon dioxide is only about 10 133% of what could you
know we could prevent by uh preventing the carbon back into the atmosphere in the first place by using widespread green energy in short our solar panels will prevent nine times as much as those forests can pull out so as far as draw down is concern which is the really
critical piece we need to be thinking about no longer flooding the atmosphere with our carbon dioxide which even if we had all the trees covering every square inch of town we wouldn't have a prayer of of absorbing anyway and I think we want to be cautious not to get caught up in more of an aesthetic argument or an
argument about biodiversity because even though biodiversity is important and I'm I'm well versed in habitat fragmentation and things like that the reality is if we don't put the brakes on the carbon in a big way then even if we have a large piece of core habitat it's just going to
be increasingly more subject to forest fires droughts insect infestation storm damage and things like that and then the Size Doesn't Really Matter so um you know I'm to discuss any of these values and figures that have been used to derive all these conclusions have been
added for a couple of decades now and went through all of these calculations with a PhD Forest ecologist um if anybody's interested at all um you can reach me at my email it's
sh WN Sean sh WN arps.org Amis Regional publicschools.org and again I'd be happy to go over any details and allow folks to poke all the holes they want into it so thank you very much appreciate you you calling in um I think it would be
appropriate if you wanted to write up what you wanted to share in more detail and you can you can email all Town counselors or you can email the five of us that are on this committee and we would appreciate getting that from you so thank you all right happy to do it
and thank you take care okay um uh agenda item CRC calendar let's pull that up did I include it proposed CRC meeting calendar did
anyone yep it's in the packet uh if people had any issue it's typically we agreed that it would be the second and fourth Thursdays the only conflicts that we might bump into our actually
Thanksgiving Day itself and Christmas Day itself and given the timing and the number of Thursdays in a month we could actually continue on an every other week schedule
by adopting November 6 and November 20 then November I mean December 4 and December 18 as the alternatives to the second and fourth Thursdays Kathy I didn't look at it
closely Pam but the other suggestion that I'll throw at is you could meet just once that month so depending on what you think the workload is um you know rather than shifting but I'm happy to do either so you're saying Shi shift the
second and fourth to a a first and third um so the alternative is miss miss one of those right right and and Andor have some backtack I mean if we missed so I I have no other
opinion Mandy councelor Han I would just shift them both um it's always possible we won't need it depending on what's referred but it is the end of the term and I just remember some of the last end of terms being being tight for CRC um
although the first one was tight for CRC the second one was not I don't believe so I I would keep them for now we might find ourselves um not having anything referred to us because it's the end of term and we might be able to cancel them but I'd rather have two per month just
in case we're trying to get through stuff before the end of the term so can I can I double check then uh make sure I understand exactly what you are agreeing to or disagreeing to what dates do you want in November do you want the
13th or the sixth I would do your shifts as suggested in Red so 24 and 18 okay thank you okay um can I get a motion I think we could just agree to it
right yeah well we have to take a motion well let's vote on it and then we give our proposed calendar to I'll adop the calendar with the suggested November and December dates as pres amended presented I'm not sure which one
suggested Kathy second okay uh Kathy yes vot we're voting uh Jennifer yes councelor hanii I Pat deangelus I and Pam roone is and I
good that's done I will forward that to Athena and she can make it official um the other item that I was hoping to cover um just thinking about most of us except Kathy have been
through this cycle of interviewing zba and planning board members and one of the things one of the reasons that I ended up writing that memo to um to make some adjustments in either our policy or
the citizen activity form is that we typically ask people to have an active calf in our possession after our bulletin board
announcement has been made and posted and so it occurred to me that we could be really proactive we can get our bulletin board announcement out now or soon and uh have that gate open and then any calf that comes in at after that
point is like golden instead of having to do it a couple of times any discussion on that beautiful idea Jennifer yeah I agree I think it was confusing in streamlining it I mean
it almost we were asking people to do so much previously that I think some people well Dro dropped off that may not have been the reason but I think streamlining it and making it clearer it was a little confusing and
having consistent um processes across um the different forms what's actually written on the form and when it has to be posted so I I think that was very helpful and i would support
that uh councelor hanaki so that proposal was referred to go not us so I'm not sure why we would be discussing the proposal itself here versus starting the okay I'm not discussing the proposal I'm just saying thinking about the
reason for me wanting to do the proposal is because we want we want calfs to come in after the posted bulletin board notice we could avoid this Al together if we did a bulletin board notice
posting early say in March if you present I I would recommend you present a draft bulletin board notice to us at the next meeting so that we can approve it so it can be posted I will do it that would help go as
well not notice zba board yeah I will I will give you drafts for uh posting and I'll bring them both to the next meeting which is next week great thank you that's what I wanted to
hear I just was not sure if there was a reason to not do it early uh Jennifer do we know how many vacancies there'll be on each of those pjas I'll I'll bring that information you know it's a matter of just looking it up
there there are several ZB just because there are several um year for the one year yeah yeah so so we know we're getting them anyway and I think there are two people on the planning board also that finish up in in um in
202 good I'll do that for next week um let's look at minute meeting minutes please we have three meeting minutes to approve and we'll start with April 30 are there any additions
Corrections speaking of zba this was our zba interview evening of April 30th 2024 I don't think I've ever seen minutes where they've had every question and answer so someone I have never we might we might
talk about do we want that of detail that level of detail is not necessary I agree under open meeting law right yeah you can listen to the tape of the you know meeting recording of the meeting yeah so we could save the
notetaker a lot of time by allowing some consolidation okay I'll I'll pass that I'll pass that along as well uh would anyone like to make a motion to accept this very deta I move that we accept the
minutes of the April 30th 2024 CRC meeting second deangeles let's take a vote um Kathy okay Jennifer Yes Pat hi councelor
haniki hi Pam Ro is and I so that was 430 thank you the next one is January 14 2025 any any additions any corrections so just so Kathy knows once
these once these are approved uh they get dated it says minutes approved on whatever date at the in the in the header or the footer and then they go into our meeting minutes um
folder in in our SharePoint and they also get sent to Athena to post on the public on public page whatever any motion here pam pam will make a motion I move to approve the meeting minutes of
January of January 14 2025 is there a second second dangeles take a vote Pat hi Jennifer yes Kathy Shane
abstain councelor hanii I and Pam is an I so 4 to one thank you and the last one is must be
uh CRC minutes for April 2 2024 any corrections additions any motions I move to accept the minutes of April SEC 4 2024 second no thank you Jennifer April
2nd 2024 Jennifer second let's take a vot uh let's see Jennifer Yes Pat d'angeles hi I excuse me pam pam roon and I councelor hanii I Kathy Shane
Shane we're gonna get a lot we're gonna get a lot of 2024 just see you're Weare okay thank that can happen is that the minutes can be designated to somebody for a single person or U shared
to be reviewed so um particularly I believe Athena talked about that um and uh one of the things I had been asked to do was review at the end of 2023 review all the go minutes that were
outstanding and I forgot so I recently did them uh and so in G we uh it is possible to share them out and then one person is saying yes I I approve these minutes but there's so some with ones
that are so old it seems reasonable to do that and I also as aide Kathy even though you haven't been this was this always intrigued me this was in our first year I think we heard this even if you haven't been at a meeting and you
don't know anything that happened but you've read through the minutes you can vote on them or not or obain no problem about abstaining I'm not saying that I'm just no and Pat I agree with that but having not been there and not willing to pend the time watching your Zoom meeting
yeah they have literally no idea so but on designating um we we're we've done alternatives on finance but I think it works good designating someone as a reviewer including a set um and then and then voting them as a block and question
is you have to trust that the reviewer is willing to cross check with the zoom that that's actually what happened because sometimes the minutes you get are not quite right you know and in venience it's a confusion of was it Chapter 70 or chapter 90 or was it
charter school you know I mean the words the minute taker didn't distinguish correctly um and then when you're reviewing it there's nothing wrong with the word it just wasn't the right word that's why I was suggesting sharing it out between the five of us so yeah we
could look for volunteers at the next meeting um the next next preview um obviously we're going to keep going with the solar byw made good progress tonight I did reach out to Nate uh to see and I haven't gotten back heard back from him but he
seemed willing to give us a short short uh update on the adus and just where we stand what what um planning board has been working through at this point just to keep us up to speed um are there any other previews any other agenda items
that we should be including oh well we'll have we'll have um what do you call it bulletin board boing for zba and planning
board just for my own notes Kathy so I have a question just on solar since I'm coming in later but with fresh eyes if I have some questions or comments that are big picture such as crosschecking with
est state law and the definition of large solar versus our definition of large can I just write them in a memo and then bring it to the committee next time I don't want to put it in a packet without discussion so it's it's it's
items like that and Pat you know I asked in passing to today on how big a section section here are we going to do on best knowing that there we have freestanding you know and how do we indicate you know so I have some basic structural
questions like that um and some organizational ones so if I do it with fresh eyes looking at what is a pretty messy V8 uh virsion 8 but I'm what I'm doing is going back to the very first version that came to you from the
committee looking at Chris's notes and then some of yours but I'm just so I was just going to bring that rather it's not line item at all it's it's bigger picture so I would bring it my suggestion is I would just bring it as a memo and speak to it rather than put it
in the packet so I wouldn't be having a conversation with all of you before you saw it yeah no I think that's a great idea Kathy thank you U what I'm talking about maybe one page or one and a you know but sometimes it's still better if
if if when you bring it you could find a way I don't know how you do this technically but share it while you're talking about it so we can see it oh yeah yeah no I can do it share and and and we can put it in the packet right away as soon as I'm speaking to it I mean these are questions rather than
suggestions on what to change so yeah y thank you yeah that's a good idea so bring your memo happy to have it David um I need a little excuse me little refresher coming coming off the flu and and out of the haze here um
where is best I mean Bess is referenced in the current draft but where where does Bess stand relative to a referral did the council it hasn't it it hasn't been referred yes okay that's what I
thought has worked on it and I know that yeah that's where I was kind of go I made a note to check in with Christine on that but um so really until until CRC gets that referral from the council best isn't squarely on your on your plate on
your radar screen yeah it needs to be included yeah so and another short another short answer is that we recognized that at the time that we might want a very separate b a standalone B but we needed to in the
meantime include it as refence when we're talking about uh lgpi as as somebody said today it always is coming with some sort of B so we need to include best um and cover it in the subal and requirements and and but best
could come to the council either from the planning board or staff at any time yeah yes but not having anything in look how long we still don't even have a solar bylaw who I don't think most people are going to fight about best but
to not uh have some reference to it and some requirement in the basic solar BYO would be a mistake I don't think it's not this heavy-handed D I just I just don't want you to get bored P that's all I want to line more things up to I'm only bored when we get to the very end
and I want everybody including myself to condense their speech all right any questions just just write us if you want um there are no announcements nothing anticipated 48 hours in advance and I
think at 602 I would like to adjourn uh I I move that we adjourn I move to adjourn I let's go Pat d'angeles no no I pamon
is an I uh councelor hanaki hi Kathy Shane yes did I do Jennifer no but yes okay good Dave thank you as always yes thanks take care every glad you're glad you're feeling a little better from the flu
yeah bye bye thanks